Denise's Dailys

I've come to find this sort of like my personal journal, except instead of being able to close the book and hide the thoughts from everyone I have you to hold me accountable for them.

I've been studying James and several themes are emerging. 1. Truly living what I believe in the Bible, because if I don't live it I don't really believe it and 2. Mercy not judgment. I always get a little scared when I start studying something new, because I know my generous God is going to give me many opportunities to practice. And boy, he sure has. I can't tell you the number of times I have been presented with the decision to show mercy or judge in the past week. The choice is mine. Do I really believe what I'm saying I believe in the Bible, or is it just talk? If I believe it, I will live it. I'm not going to lie and say I have made the right choice every time, but the Holy Spirit is definitely working on me right where I am, in every situation in my life. Some are very simple situations and some are as complex at it gets, but the decision is the same-mercy or judgment, believe and live it out or don't.

Denise's Dailys

What a great weekend we had! We were able to spend the weekend with a precious body of believers who desire to have God use them to reach out to others. It was amazing to see people listening to the Holy Spirit and many making renewed commitments to reach out to their neighbors, friends, and family. Robbie and I went home praying that these decisions weren't made out of "peer pressure" or out of emotion, but that these folks will truly allow the Holy Spirit to guide them to open doors with folks around them.

There were a couple of truths that came home to me anew this weekend as well. The speaker at one point said that we won't just be accountable for what we say and do in front of others, but what we do, say, and think when we are alone is what matters most to God. Ouch.

The other thing was that I could be doing more. Sure, I'm in front of people every weekend telling them about Jesus, and I try to reach out to my neighbors with various activities. But what if today was the last day I had. What would I be saying to the grocery store clerk and the dry cleaning lady and the mail carrier? Now, I'm not saying we should cram the Bible down all of their throats, but are we looking for open doors to serve and love people? Are we ready when God sends someone our way who is as our pastor would say "ripe for the picking"?

I want to be ready. That is my heart's desire, and so I ask for the Lord to prepare my heart.

Denise's Daily

It's Monday. Often this is a down day. It's hard to get motivated on a Monday. But after the Lord's day I had, I can't help but be motivated to get this week going. As a friend of ours said, it's all about the Power Source. If our power to live each day comes from the Holy Spirit living within us, we CAN conquer Satan. We Can!

I ask the Holy Spirit to fill me today completely, so that I am controlled by His power. I can not do it on my own. I can't. I am at the end of myself. And that's exactly where He needs me to be to do His work through me.

Denise's Dailys

It's Saturday. Yeah! We get to spend some time with some very good friends tonight. Unfortunately no concerts this weekend, but we get to go to our home church, have some much needed fellowship and be fed by the Holy Spirit as we dig into Ephesians. We're working through it in church, but the cool thing is that we also went through part of Ephesians at the conference we attended this past week. God brought different things to life from His Word in each situation.

We talked about Paul's ministry quite a bit at the conference and how exactly he structured his ministry. In church, we've been studying the passage more for growth as a church and as individuals who are part of a community. Isn't it amazing that His Word is living and so rich that we can read the same passage one day and learn a completely different truth the next day when we read it. I'd love to hear what passages you are studying and the truths God is teaching you. We can all learn from them.

Denise's Dailys

So, I've encouraged Robbie to write on here, but he's a very busy guy. He hopes to get on later tonight. I really don't want this to be just a place I go to write out my thoughts. I have one of those places already. It's called my journal. :) We need you to get involved here, and share your thoughts, concerns, encouraging verses you've been reading in Scripture...whatever you want to share. Just keep it family friendly, of course.

For today, I feel like God's on the verge of doing something really huge around us right now. I don't mean just in the world-although He's definitely preparing the world for something ginormous right now with all that's going on, but I'm talking about in our little world. God is preparing our hearts and opening up our thoughts to think about Him in a bigger way than we ever have before. He's used our pastor, books we've read, and situations He's placed us in, and is gently urging us to dream Big, ask Big, and expect Big things! I think it may be called growing our faith, but it seems different this time. In the past, the faith-growing has mostly been out of hardships. Amazingly, our all-powerful God can also grow faith just by expanding our minds.

Oh Papa, expand our minds today. And may the gap between my little world and the huge world around me grow more narrow as I see Your hand in all of it, and as you place us in situations where we have opportunities to reach the world for You!